Methods and systems for determining emotional connectivity using physiological measurements from connected devices

Abstract

The disclosure provides methods and systems for determining an emotional fitness metrics for users. A physiological parameter of the user is measured during a group activity using at least one biosensor to acquire a measured signal. The measured signal of the user is compared to a measured signal for the physiological parameter of one or more additional users as measured when the one or more additional users perform the group activity. An emotional connectivity may be calculated based on a synchronicity of the measured signal of the user with the measured signal of the one or more additional users, as well as a cognitive appraisal metric, a resilience metric and an emotional fitness metric. Connectivity values for user pairings for a group activity can be computed based a synchronicity in a time-series correlation for the physiological parameters for permutations of the user pairings for the group activity.

1 . A computer implemented method for determining an emotional fitness metric for a group activity based on synchronicity of measured signals of physiological parameters of users acquired during a time period of the group activity, the method comprising:
 measuring physiological parameters using a hardware processor to access non-transitory memory storing physiological signals acquired from a group of connected user devices during the time period of the group activity, each connected user device having at least one biosensor to acquire a physiological signal of a user during the time period of the group activity;   time-synchronizing the measured signals of the physiological parameters of the users using the hardware processor to read time stamps of the measured signals of the physiological parameters;   computing connectivity values for user pairings for the group activity corresponding to a synchronicity in a time-series correlation for the physiological parameters for permutations of user pairings for the group activity by using the hardware processor for signal comparison of, for each user pairing of the permutations of user pairings for the group activity, the time-synchronized measured signals for the physiological parameters of a user of the respective user pairing to the time-synchronized measured signals for the physiological parameters of another user of the respective user pairing;   computing the emotional connectivity metric for the group activity using the hardware processor to store and access the connectivity values for user pairings for the group activity in the non-transitory memory;   controlling a user device of the group of connected user devices using the hardware processor to generate and transmits control commands based on the computed emotional connectivity metric.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the physiological parameter is a breath rate. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 transmitting the emotional connectivity metric for the group activity to an interface at a computing device in communication with the hardware processor over the network for data exchange and programmed with executable instructions for generating visual elements representing the emotional connectivity metric for the group activity and at least a portion of the connectivity values for the user pairings for the group activity. 
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 determining the user's resilience metric using the hardware processor to measure a variability of the physiological parameter of the user; and 
 requesting inputs at a user device of an emotional state of the user before and after performing the group activity and calculating a cognitive appraisal metric based on the two emotional state inputs; and/or 
 calculating the emotional fitness metric of the user using the hardware processor according to:
   Emotional Fitness Metric=Cognitive Appraisal(Emotional Connectivity Metric+Resilience Metric). 
 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein if the emotional state of the user improves after performing the group activity, the cognitive appraisal metric is greater than 1. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein if the emotional state of the user decreases after performing the group activity, the cognitive appraisal metric is greater than 0 and less than 1. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the physiological parameter is a heart rate and the at least one biosensor is a heart rate monitor. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the variability of the physiological parameter is calculated by calculating a number of peaks and troughs in a heart rate curve, and
 wherein the calculating comprises counting and weighting the peaks and troughs in the heart rate curve using the hardware processor.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the physiological parameter is a breath rate. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing a recommendation to the user of activities for improving the emotional fitness metric. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more additional users have performed and completed the group activity and recorded their physiological parameter in a database, the step of comparing comprising comparing the physiological parameter of the user with the physiological parameters recorded in the database. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user and the one or more additional users are performing the group activity at the same time. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user and the one or more additional users are performing the group activity at the same time and in a same geographical location. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user and the one or more additional users are performing the group activity at different times and/or at different geographical locations. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the group activity comprises synchronicity of breath of the user and the one or more additional users. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the group activity is a yoga class. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more additional users are virtual users. 
     
     
         18 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer program code configured when executed by one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to perform a method as defined in  claim 1 . 
     
     
         19 . A computer hardware system for determining emotional fitness metric for a group activity based on synchronicity of measured signals of physiological parameters of users acquired during a time period of the group activity, the system comprising:
 non-transitory memory storing measured signals of physiological parameters of users acquired during the time period of the group activity from a network of a plurality of connected user devices for the group activity, each user device having at least one biosensor to acquire a measured signal of a physiological parameter of a user during the time period of the group activity;   one or more servers having a hardware processor coupled to the memory to access the measured signals of physiological parameters of the users acquired during the time period of the group activity to compute an emotional connectivity metric for the group activity, the hardware processor executing instructions stored in the memory to:
 identify measured signals of the physiological parameters of the users stored in the non-transitory memory using the group activity; 
 time-synchronize the measured signals of the physiological parameters of the users; 
 compute a normalized cross-correlation matrix with connectivity values for user pairings for the group activity corresponding to a synchronicity in a time-series correlation for the physiological parameters for permutations of the user pairings for the group activity by, for each user pairing of the permutations of user pairings for the group activity, comparing the time-synchronized measured signals for the physiological parameters of a user of the respective user pairing to the time-synchronized measured signals for the physiological parameters of another user of the respective user pairing; and 
 compute the emotional connectivity metric for the group activity using the normalized cross-correlation matrix with the connectivity values for the user pairings for the group activity corresponding to the synchronicity in the time-series correlation for the physiological parameters for the permutations of the user pairings for the group activity; and 
 transmit the emotional connectivity metric for the group activity to an interface at a computing device in communication with the one or more servers over the network for data exchange and programmed with executable instructions for generating visual elements representing the emotional connectivity metric for the group activity and at least a portion of the connectivity values for the user pairings for the group activity. 
   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the physiological parameter is a breath rate.